K-On: The Light Music Club

Join Yui as she joins the K-On light music club, learns the guitar and helps lead the band ("Ho-goku/After-school Tea Time") to their successful stage performance as part of the Sakura(gaoka) High School Festival!

Supported by the friends, fanclub and 3-2 class/music teacher Sawako.

High school bands are a wonderful part of many musician's journey, not only learning their instruments, but also teamwork, dealing with failures and the hard work needed to make their performances a success. I remember my days hanging out with my friends band as the practiced in our school hall after school had closed, but it wasn't until many years later that this anime inspired me to buy my own guitar and amp, replicas of Yui's, which I still can't play to this day!

K-On is a family-friendly, light-hearted 2009-11 anime from Kyoto Animation, based on the manga by Kakifly with location based on a school which welcomes tourists to visit the real clubroom. Running for two series and a film covering the high school years of Yui and the band: they never achieve unrealistic success nor produce outstanding music, but they really show the fun and joy that comes from working hard to achieve their ambitions... though they do spend a lot of time just having tea and cake!

With 2 number one albums and 20 top ten singles, this is a band that plays real music. The voice actresses even learnt to play their character's instuments for two arena concerts, performing live to a total of 50k fans!

At just over 2100 pieces, this multi-location model details a typical school corridor, in-front of their classroom 3-2; their clubroom above; the high scool auditorium stage and the stairwell that links them with it's 'hare and the tortoise' motif highlighting that steady practice leads to success.

I have recreated clubroom details as seen towards the end of the series with many features that bring the room to life. Spaced out studs on the tiled floors throughout provide countless options to place and pose figures. I have included recreations of all their instuments and equipment, ensuring that logos and brand names are changed to avoid IP issues. The wall posters and other details are given a similar treatment. The drumkit with stool has it's own base so it can be easily moved.

Whilst maintaining the look of the stairwell, I have added a noticeboard displaying flyers for the festival, jazz performance and the live open-house the band performed at - where they covered their guitar cases with back stage pass stickers.

Each of the band members have two tops: school outfit, and logo'd band t-shirt; and school bags sporting their matching tags that spell out Keion-fu (K-on) in japanese. Clips and band are added to Yui and Ritsu's hair whilst Tsumugi has enlarged eyebrows and Mio has a second 'panicked' expression. I had to digitally include the turtles, hares and guitars due to the pieces not being available in LDD, but they are common Lego pieces.

The final character included from the series is To-chan, the club's pet turtle!

I hope that fans of the series, and those with nostalgia for their high-school band days, find a lot to enjoy in this set and maybe one day #LegoDoesAnime.

With teamwork, practice and knowing how to enjoy the journey - anyone can aspire to be a great musician!